GL_EXT_depth_buffer_float has the same role than NVIDIA GL_NV_depth_buffer_float. GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate is an OpenGL 1.5 extension and GL_AMD_texture_texture4 is not documented. But most of the new OpenGL 3 extensions quoted in the release note are not present in Catalyst 8.9 under Windows XP and Vista. Maybe AMD/ATI have introduced the same principle than NVIDIA, with a kind of OpenGL 3.0 activation somewhere (see here). But here again, no documentation is available. Or more simply, AMD want to show to the community that they do an effort to support the new major version of OpenGL, but any OpenGL 3 extension is currently available to developers. Communication is a tough art at ATI!

Catalyst 8.9, like Catalyst 8.8, still slow down the GPU when FurMark is detected (see here and here for more detail).